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DIY Wine Charms – Wire Wrapped Sea Glass

My whole family enjoys making wine charms from small pieces of beach or sea glass. This is a very simple and rewarding craft activity, even my husband and his friends join in and make DIY wine charms with me from time to time! I hope that you enjoy my step-by-step photo tutorial for making wire wrapped sea glass, DIY wine charms!

For those that like written crafting instructions you can read my instructions below. If you would like to watch my instructional YouTube video for DIY wine charms then please click on the link below.

Our family lives relatively close to the Atlantic Ocean, and we head to the beach as a family on a regular basis. However, we are not the classic sun worshipping family. In the summer, we often head to the beach early in the morning before the crowds arrive. We even head to the beach in the dead of winter, although in this case we go after lunch so that things can warm up a bit here in New Hampshire. As you can imagine, the attire that we wear at the beach varies from season to season – and the winter visits do not involve swimming or getting into the water!

While our overall family beach activities vary from season to season there is one activity that we engage in as a family whenever we visit the beach – we search for beach glass (or sea glass). The rocky beaches and constant wave activity here in New England make quick work of any freshly broken glass; quickly smoothing out any sharp edges and thereby creating little jewels and gems that we like to search for as a family.

At the young age of 2 my kids were already able to find sea glass on their own, especially vibrant green pieces of glass. Over the years we have accumulated a few large tupperware bins of glass, small white pottery shards, and old brick remnants that are roughly the shape of an almond. Especially for my husband, who often takes the kids to the beach early in the morning so that I can get some rest, these piles of glass represent treasured mornings with the children that I know he will never forget.

After a while, I started wondering what we can do to re-purpose some of the treasures that we found together at the beach. In the end, I decided to make DIY wine charms with these treasures as a means of celebrating and remembering some lovely days together as a family.

Instructions for these simple and elegant wine charms are as follows.

Supplies:

20 gauge wire

26-24 gauge wire

Needle nose pliers with wire cutters

A few small glass beads (with large enough hole to go on the large wire)

Various pieces of beach glass, pottery or old brick shards

Instructions for making wire wrapped sea glass, DIY wine charms:

1. Choose how you want the charm to hang. Cut a 14 inch piece of the smaller gauge wire and place it vertically along the sea glass with one end of the wire (call this the tag end of the wire) hanging off of the edge of the glass by ~2 inches.

2. Wrap the long end of the wire securely around the glass, crossing the wire back over itself as many times as you like. The shape of the glass piece often dictates how many wraps are required to secure the glass. When you finish wrapping the wire around the glass be sure to bring the wrapping wire in line with (and immediately adjacent to) the tag end of the wire.

3. Twist the two ends of wire together to form one long wire (call this the double wire). This double wire is shown as a twisted wire on the left side of the white pottery shard in the image above.

4. Use the needle nose pliers to form the double wire into a loop, then twist the end of the double wire around the base of the loop and at the edge of the glass.

5. Trim excess wire and press down the remaining end of wire with your pliers. Set the charm aside.

6. Use the pliers to curl the end of the larger gauge wire back on itself to form a ¼” double loop.

7. Shape the main center section of wire into a large circular loop. I like to wrap the wire around a wooden spoon handle to maintain an ideal loop diameter and circular shape. This circle of wire should be about ¾” in diameter.

8. Place 2-3 craft beads on the wire followed by the glass charm. Complete the beaded sequence with 2-3 additional craft beads.

9. Complete the reverse curl on the remaining end of the larger gauge wire to match the first end.

10. Place the charm on your wine glass and have a drink!

Since a picture says a thousand words, please view my instructional YouTube video (link below) and watch me make one of these DIY wine charms.